First of all democracy obviously has worked. But so far as India is concerned, it has failed miserably. But if the Indians are determined to make it work, more power to them.

Now to the topic of China undermining the trust of India. There is a curious notion perpetuated by the Indian media that China is the aggressor, Nehru was naive, China back stab India...etc.

One thing that was often left out is that for two years before 1962, when China launched a surprise attack on India, India has been moving troops and stationing in area that even British India recognized it as Chinese territory. Specifically north of the so called McMahon line, which the then Chinese government, the Nationalist and the present Chinese government never accept its legitimacy. This line first appears in a map published by British India which the then Chinese government didn't know about it for twenty years. Nehru called this the setting up of military outpost on Chinese land as defined by British India the 'Forward Policy'. It is not as if colonial Britain is not territorial aggressive enough.

For a detail account of the 1962 war, both the events that leads up to it and the aftermath, please read Neville Maxwell's book 'India China War'. You will be shocked to learn that it is India who is the aggressor, not China.

Speaking of mistakes, both communist countries and democratic countries have no shortage of them. sure communist china made mistakes like the great leap forward and cultural revolution but, as is shown in post war history, democracy has an even worse record. Remember the percentage of people who agreed to lauch the war in Viet Nam in the name of democracy and freedom and the same lot of people turned against the war after so many lives lost and houses burned? Is this not a mistake? has the system which caused the disaster changed? if it has, then what's going on in iraq and afghanistan now? So far we have had papa bush's war in iraq, with his son's war in the above mentioned countries, we also have had clinton's war in yogo slavia. then can we not be worried about Obama' war this time? If this is what democracy can do, I am not the least impressed.

App1354uc3 - I like your balanced views on the whole India-China question. Some of the views I saw on this forum from some of the Chinese writers were quite surprising.

China has had success in the recent past but it's really in no position to be looking down on countries such as India. It's entirely true that the Chinese administrative system has been far superior to India's resulting in many more people getting out of poverty, illiteracy, disease there. But China has a long way to go as well. And no one quite understands the effects of political transition/demographic change in China.

On the other hand, India has been a modest success - not a spectacular one - in many fields.

It behooves people from two such large and old civilizations at a fairly similar level of development (China has the lead for now - but not by that far ) to have a sense of mutual respect rather than "scorn" for each other.

As far as industrial stench and waste goes, I think it's clear to the whole world who the biggest polluter in the World is. China, by far, has the most polluted cities anywhere in the world.

As for slums being found in India cities and not in Chinese ones - unlike China, people have a free right of movement in India. No one gets thrown into jail for trying to move to a big city. Just that slums are more visible to the foreign eye as they are in the bigger cities while people do not have a choice and languish in poverty in the rural countryside in China.

The scorns against India is real:read Aiyar Palavi(the ex Hindustan bureau chief in Beijing)'s many books. She is unique in that she can read & write Chinese~a true China-hand, someone quite like the likable Aussie Kevin Rudd. She was famously quoted to have said that China's most destitute people & remotest/backward/run-down places seemed like angel/paradice when compared to its Indian counterpart. During the previous Winter games, some Western sports officials ridiculed India for having only one miserable athlete coming from a more than 1 billion population background.

This writer had the unique experience of having visited Indian cities like New Delhi & Mumbai~the experiences were horrific to say the least:cardboard/tin-shack houses are everywhere lining right on the edges of busy streets, people urinating openly on anywhere they deem fit, the air is foul filled with disgusting ordour from human excretion, the rivers stenched with industrial & human filths....

Having said all these however, Chinese do sincerely wish our Indian neighbour well. Chinese have no desire to compare/compete with India for we have only set our sights on Japan, US or even tiny S'pore & we hope India will do likewise. India's relentless grooming of China as an imaginary enemy is not only amounting to senseless paranoid but is utterly annoying if not disgusting to say the least.

india was slow to open up the economy.benefits of free trade and investment have started to pay dividends.india has an excellent capital market.however it needs more reforms to grow faster.infrastructure is poor.malnutrition of children and a large number of people below poverty line, large number of subsistance farmers are the major problems facing the country.
however the size of the country,democracy,empower the country to play a larger role in international arena which india should play in the interest of world.
the western powers, particularly america and uk have not been helpful in the past.it is in their interest to support india which can be their true and dependable friend.undue importance was given to pakistan by the western powers.
west should also diversify their sourcing of high labour content, low technology goods from india,pakistan,bangladesh etc and reduce reliance on china.it is a pity that china can unilaterally postpone the eu summit meet because the eu president,sarkozy met dalai lama.eu gulps such insult.after all, eu is the largest trading block in the world and they should show china its place.india has the guts to give assylum to dalai lama for decades!

india was slow to open up the economy.benefits of free trade and investment have started to pay dividends.india has an excellent capital market.however it needs more reforms to grow faster.infrastructure is poor.malnutrition of children and a large number of people below poverty line, large number of subsistance farmers are the major problems facing the country.
however the size of the country,democracy,empower the country to play a larger role in international arena which india should play in the interest of world.
the western powers, particularly america and uk have not been helpful in the past.it is in their interest to support india which can be their true and dependable friend.undue importance was given to pakistan by the western powers.
west should also diversify their sourcing of high labour content, low technology goods from india,pakistan,bangladesh etc and reduce reliance on china.it is a pity that china can unilaterally postpone the eu summit meet because the eu president,sarkozy met dalai lama.eu gulps such insult.after all, eu is the largest trading block in the world and they should show china its place.india has the guts to give assylum to dalai lama for decades!

to Freedom_Fighter :
democracy if still open to question whether or not is is more successful than other forms of government, there is not indication that just because you are a large democractic country that you will definitly rise(in whatever sense). after all imperial rule has brought peacer a power to some countries that lasted far longer that the current demcratic record. whith that said, i do not mean that there is no chance.

to leeweeshing :
you do not speak for all the chinese people so do not say "we" it is your thought and however twisted they are they are yours.

china today is still composed of many poor people yes, but comparing it to albania is also not entirely true, in that regard albania has some million people china easily has that amount of "well off" to "rich" people. to to it making a mistake, it has made them in the past, i would say that the great leap forward was a very large one, and yet it survives and today it thrives that is to show that yes autocratic government can make large mistake but then again so has democracies and it too survives today. as to expirencing freedoms generally in history the population of people would gladly give up freedoms for security, and that what the ccp provides today which is why there is no real threat of a uprising that would topple the current chinese government.

now for my personally views on this india china subject.

i feel that india is growing and prehaps which some luck and a lot of work it will reach its protential someday but as it is now the large bureaucracies in place hamper an organized action by the government. in china things has been better(in terms of growth, infrastructure, and overall well being because the central government has a very focus view of what it wants to do and with its autocractic power , what ccp decides needs to be done , gets done. this is the major differnce right now. the ccp can better organize and thus though its efforts lift millions out of absolute poverty one area the india needs to focus on. we here in the west love to trout india as the largest democracy but really all those right dont equal much to the millions that cant feed themselves. as to the people but both nations i have met some of both. from each nation i have met very nice people that i have become very good friuends with and some that are just closed minded.
ie: one indian that has tranfered to my college he comehow has gotten the idea the india it the alsolute greatest nation on earth, going as far as to say there is no unhappy poor people in india and and nothing striking he say was that india has the greatest airforce in the world..."many times better than the US" we show him the fact has he has become much more humble since them. i tend to think that he is the exception and as the other indian i know is much more sensible and understands that india need to feed its poor and develop it industry, not just outsourced it support but real industry that produces products that had a supply chain that would provide even more jobs

now for the chinese side.
i have met hardcore nationalistic chinese people before and they say some outrages things like one day we will take back Taiwan and invade the us blab,blab,blab(too much crap i shut it out)... sidenote(i truly believe that Taiwan will reunite with china(PRC) oneday how is another subject all togther) but agian i have also met sensible chinese people as well, this one kid i know live in the dorm next to mine, he is very hard working and deticated, we have talk and he fully support and "peaceful chinese rise"
and he acknowledges the shortcomming of the PRC but he believe that for what it is the prc is not entirely bad, it has come a long way since the 50s and it indeed as changed in our talks he believes that has the 1989(since it is june 4) revolt to national and the prc fallen then yes china may be a large democracy but an extremely poor one with millions still starving and reliant on the west while he says no problem with interactions with the west reliant on anyone is something that chinese people would like to advoid then he joking(maybe) added what a couple thousand years of alway winding up the top dog in ur neighborhood lead to expectation thats it will again rise to that position and dependent on anyone is not in their interest.

for the future i believe and if the PRC can continue to adapt and change according to the times i may survive in a different form when and if china even develops to the point where they are rich enough that people can began to worry about freedoms rather than what to eat tomorrow and if ur job will still be there.for now china is in the lead compared to india the question is whether it can keep that lead and much of that may have to due with how much the government in china can deal with corruption and be willing to change